1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital still camera that can take up an image and convert the data of the image to digital data to record it on a recording medium, the recorded digital data being able to be reproduced by an external play back device.
2. Related Background Art
A digital still camera picks up the image of a photographic subject by using an imaging element such as a CCD, converts the image data to a digital data, which are the result of photographing, and then records the digital data to a recording medium such as a memory card. The data thus recorded are reproduced by a monitor connected to the camera.
However, the majority of digital still cameras in the prior art are not provided with reproducing functions. Because of this, in order to reproduce the images, a reproducing unit that transfers the digital data from the camera to the monitor must be mounted on the camera main body. Since it is bothersome to attach and detach the reproducing unit each time the photographer switches between photographing and reproduction, many photographers perform photographing with the reproducing unit left attached to the camera main body.
With the reproducing unit mounted, however, the overall weight and bulk of the camera equipment is increased and it becomes too cumbersome to carry around. And the mounted reproducing unit hinders photographing and may cause the photographer to miss good photographing opportunities.
Digital still cameras provided with reproducing functions are also known in the prior art. In this type of camera, in order to miniaturize the camera body, only the minimum required functionality of a normal reproducing unit is usually provided. Because of this, with this type of camera, while the frame number of the frame data that is currently being reproduced can be displayed on an indicator unit of the camera, the total frame number of the photographic data recorded on the memory card cannot be indicated.
In addition, when displaying the data recorded on the memory card on an external monitor, the recorded data must be converted to image signals. Widely known signal processing systems for image signals include the NTSC system and the PAL system. Digital still cameras equipped with reproducing functions in the known art only support one of either the NTSC system or the PAL system. This means that in order to connect a camera that outputs NTSC image signals to a PAL-type monitor, a time-consuming task of converting the image signals output from the camera to PAL type image signals must be completed before they can be input to the monitor.